Jokeyman123

Let's see if this gets to the marketplace. Only crowd-funded so far. looks like one of the more innovative guitar effects I've seen in a long time. If the price is right, I'd buy one but the guitar strap configuration needs some more looking over.

Don't know exactly what preset on the CTX5000-but on "Let it Be", this is a very "churchy" full sounding Hammond-open stops, probably some phaser effects going on. Also possibly the tiniest bit of vibrato. Definitely a Hammond on that one if I'm not mistaken. "I'm Down"-you picked one of my all time favorites-Paul at his best. It is a Vox Continental-look for a preset that might say "Cheesy" as many programmers like to label their attempts at sounding like the Vox. Alot of treble on this one, no phasing-mostly straight presets and tones with drawbars and no effects-very harsh, I've played one or two years ago. I still have my original 45 of "I'm Down", for a reason....I love this track. This is what rock music is-and thank you Little Richard. Maybe I'll have my family play this at my funeral......

This is an x64 version it seems. Installs no problem on Windows 64-bit but not on 32-bit OS at least the stnd-alon didn't try it as a CTRLR panel. Not a problem for me, but posting so others know this. Very good editor.

Talk about from one extreme to the other...and yes Chas, too much "predatory" selling lately. I see this not just with Casio, but with just about everything lately on e**** and Reverb too. And I found prices for these Wersi's at their website and it ain't pretty. The one above lists for 49,000 euros which will mean 1.09 US X 49,000. Guess i won't be adding that to my collection.

Wow brad you are right, there is barely nothing about this one, Google isn't my friend. Most posts if at all are in italian. I found a poorly scanned copy of the manual-a few pictures and one for sale last year for 4000 zar, whatever that is. A full double manual console organ, complete with swell pedal and bass foot pedals, looks like a very interesting Casio. Even has a 4-track sequencer from what I'm reading. Looks pretty nice but aside from one shabby video on Youtube showing a repair and a few pictures almost nothing is showing up-google keeps finding the CTK-2000 instead. Dumb Google! and then there's this....what a setup! I know others have posted, I've never found a full picture of the entire system put together though. Now this is a Casio to beat all Casios!! This has got to be the crown in the collector's corner. I've only seen pieces of thsi come up for auction, a shame. bet it sounded pretty amazing. I'm checking Youtube now for demos. We're snowed in her in NE PA, have some time to looky-look. https://www.matrixsynth.com/2008/04/casio-symphonytron-8000.html But then, I found this-good lord....tried to find a price for it. Can't. And i thought Wersi was out of business a long time ago, did have some synthes that were quite different. But I'll stop this is getting out of control. What a magnificent keyboard if it can be called that. Whew....

Just noticed one of these on one of those big auction websites, blew me away! Apparently this was a series of CK Casios. This was the big boy of the bunch. I'm watching it...hey don't laugh I still have over 200 cassettes all around the house, and a rare Vestax MR100 which still works, although i did need to replace the belts once. https://review.wolfarchitects.design/casio-ck-500-keyboard-1985/

More fans of Red Green, I'll be! My wife watched them all with me. Possum Lake Animal Control Ed Frid-was one of her favorites. Saw almost all the later seasons, not too many of the early ones. Adventures with Bill segments were very good too. Nice theme... "Remember, I'm pullin' for ya'...we're all in this together".

Hmm...just checked mine again-this doesn't sound right, mine has always been in sync perfectly with whatever downbeat I hit the keys on-will always change chord on next quarter note beat exactly right, so something might be wrong with yours. What you can't do with the 560, unlike a few other arrangers is to divide the beat to "jump" a beat subdivision-to interrupt the normal 4/4, 3/4 or whatever time signature you are using. the 560 always falls directly on the next quarter note beat. Brad might be onto something with the weighted keys-unless you anticipate (at least it may feel like that) the downbeat-the weighted keys can give a slight sensation of delay-i have to be pretty firm when I trigger the left hand chords with the weighted keys to get it right.

I had forgotten, the most famous Hohner-the clavinet-made famous by Stevie Wonder as in "Superstition" and many other "funk" style players of the time. A very interesting instrument-for which vendors are now charging insane prices for the originals. It wasn't that good, not 4000-5000 dollars good in today's US market! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clavinet

i can't recall any Casios (or any other keys/modules I have) that have that exact sound-but you might be able to find a wav sample, or even better-if you have a "pan flute" type of sound-most Casio have something like that-the key to that sound is the 2 pitches played together in a mid-low octave-I think the interval might be something like C and Eb played together or any 2 notes close to that, you'd have to experiment around a bit to get it just right. I live 50 miles from Scranton PA-yeah, great place for train lovers, they have a running full-size steam train, very cool I've heard it many times, I think this is the sound you want.....notice how the sound is pitch-bent up ever so slightly to get that effect. I have attached my wav sample of what I think you are after. train.wav

Really, I never read much about these. I had thought I missed out when I couldn't buy one when these first appeared. Could you describe a few? Considering how many similarities there seems to be with my PX560 which only revealed one true "bug" or more properly, malfunction in software-I'm surprised the MZ-X did not get bug-proofed. I suspect the massive disruptions in the markets everywhere from the Covid pandemic affected music manufacturers everywhere as the difficult economic factors now are influenced by world-wide disruptions. Products such as the MZ's suddenly disappeared from the market, as have quite a few others from my limited research. Even Kurzweil seems to have "dumbed-down" some of their products lately, probably due to the increased difficulty of making money, and the prevalence of complete software home studios, rather than having more live bands using hardware, since again if nightclubs and other live music venues cannot make a profit-live music is the first to go. So hardware music instruments are not supported much anymore, from just about anyone. Alesis devolved from making one of the most advanced synths in history 15 odd years ago-the A6 Andromeda-to making inexpensive auto-arranger boards and 'scaled-down" digital pianos. A shame, but that's business. iI understand Moog just was bought out by "InMusic"-who are supposed to back Akai and Alesis devices and others-I know first-hand how much their best stuff has pretty much been abandoned by InMusic. Now Moog apparently got sucked into the same black hole, a shame. Sorry for the rant, got off topic i guess.

How did you diagnose this? I can't help with reflashing but I am sure if you are able to get s new off the shelf IC, it will need to be re-programmed by Casio, if it can be done at all. And I sincerely doubt Casio will provide you with a replacement IC that is pre-programmed as it probably would need to be reflashed within the circuit. It is an SMT chip-do you have the ability to desolder and resolder a chip like this?

are you saying random chords will cut off all the other sounds? Is there a specific octsve or octaves that cause this? IMO, after having torn down my PX560 a few times-including getting the entire key assembly out and about on its own, there is no particular contact strip in there except for the IC boards, so I am diagnosing practically blind but my best guesses... 1) Could be as simple as the main key assembly contact ribbon coming a bit loose, shifting in its socket. This is a pretty frail strip and although it should be in its socket pretty tight, it could shift out enough to cause this rather odd malfunction. it is a ribbon connection, not a socket. 2) Since individual notes seem fine, but more than that causes a disconnect-some of the screws that mount the keys to the top part of the keyframe may have worked loose-this would cause some of the keys to lose fulcrum action and not sit properly on the rubber boots underneath-one key might work OK, but if several have come loose-and it can happen simply from playing-the weighted action needs to sit pretty secure in its frame-pressing a few keys might cause a complete disconnect-since the IC boards are connected in serial-if enough keys are not making contact at once-might shut down the entire key assembly since the scanning chip for the keys could be completely thrown off. 3) The IC boards under the keys-also may have come loose, in some sections and not others-again from repetitive playing-and this could cause a problem like this. Sounds like this would need a complete teardown to physically inspect what I am guessing at. And you might do all this inspecting yourself and discover it is a deeper electronic problem-such as a bad mainboard since that is the only component I remember that is directly connected to the key assembly. If this is under warranty, I would let Casio tech wrestle with this. Even if it isn't under warranty, its still worth repairing IMO. I'll be bringing mine in soon as the audio system for the speakers went south-very odd as everything else has always worked perfectly. But that's another horror story-as I disassembled mine for the 4th time!(!!!!) and found no easy solution-everything looked perfectly intact inside so to repair it goes. And mine is at least 4 years old now or I think 5.

This is a good idea (I have 12 18650s I keep for various uses) but what specifically will this fit into although I know some devices use a 6-battery configuration inline for D cells and 9V? For example-I couldn't use this in my XW -P1 which takes 6 LR-20 "D" cells since it fits 3 in 2 side-to side columns, as do some other instruments. And what would you use to charge a pack like this? Would have to be some type of charger-specifically for this voltage configuration. I am guessing the IC board is a balance charged circuit since these 18650's must be very carefully regulated to balance charge the cells. Or is this the buck converter? I have a few laptop-style power supplies that have switchable voltage steps-from 12v to 19V that terminate in a variety of barrel plug adapters, could possibly used as a charging source for your pack if you haven't come up with one yet. I don't think a typical 5V USB power pack would be sufficient to charge anything that draws more than 5V-and unless these is some kind of fail-safe shutdown in an IC board, could be very dangerous to undercharge a group of 18650s. Some of my RC radio-control stuff has this type of circuit-shuts off the battery if it falls below a specific voltage-but there are companies that are already selling these types-a "universal" outboard pack but would have to be, like your pack specific for a certain voltage. Since most portable keyboards I've owned or played use standard 9V or 12V, including many of my tone modules and "danceboxes", these are the voltages for the portable packs I have, which are populated with 18650s or the smaller 14650's which are also 3.7V, and these just use a standard "wall-wart" type of charger with a barrel plug since (I hope) these portable packs must have a balance-charged circuit inside. If they don't, I'm playing with a potential hand-grenade, I'm not kidding. so far these portable packs have been OK, but I usually only use 18650/450 packs for short term, I am very nervous about overheating these, since this will create "thermal runaway" and bam, you're toast. But I'm sure you know all that already. Keep it up, good idea.

What sound? Are you asking for a specific train sound-there are many. Have to be more specific-you mean the sound of a train as it runs on a track? Or do you want the sound of the train horn? Most GM banks of sounds have at least one type of train sound, as a sample-based sound. I don't know about the PX-5s. You might need to look into some kind of sample played through your computer as the PX5s does not load samples, so if it isn't part of the built-in sounds that would be the way to go-many companies also make midi modules that can either sample, or inport samples, which you could connect to the PX5s and play through the PX midi output port connected to that sampler. Or get ahold of one of the older/newer Casios that can import or record samples and save internally, such as the older SK series, or the newer MZ-X500. And a few of the older WK series can import and play samples, you'd have to do some research to see which ones.

That's a shame, because there is this....ckf rhythm player. Your browser might filter this out if you have an anti-virus program because this is a Windoz "executable". Too bad one of our local programmers here can't "reverse engineer" this little Casio ckf player to make it work with the newer .ac7 files. I use this ckf player to preview any new rhythms I create. Restyle created and posted here let's you sort and change around your .ac7 files, but it doesn't play them. Chandler, or Alex wondering out loud-how difficult would it be to collaborate again, and possibly make restyle an .ac7 file player, like the ckf player I posted here? Bring in the New Year with something really new! CkfRhythmPlayerv21.exe

I have an idea, but it might be iffy since it is an older Casio, and it may have the same keypad as the older WK's. I am talking about the older PX575 or PX400. I'm mentioning these because these do save in the older .Z00 format for songs. Only 6 tracks like the WK3200 and others from that period in time. although these are definitely bigger-these are the only others i can think of that have gray colored cabinets. If you read my other posts here about my PX575-I really like this keyboard-even with piano weighted keys, the action is so nice on these-you don't have to be a piano player to play these. I've had no technical or mechanical problems with mine for 4-5 years, are rare on the used market, but IMO, even in relation to the newest WK series-this is one of the "sleeper" Casios-the 575 has no midi din ports, only midi USB, the 400 has midi din ports, both are very light to carry too, like the later PX series pianos, but these are the closest i can think of that are most similar to the best older WK's-and IDES 4.0 software designed for these, is a pretty impressive piece of software. Check these out. The fit and finish on these are also pretty solid, and both have a silver/gray metallic finish. Speaker systems on these are also pretty impressive. And Happy New Year!

VBDX what you say makes alot of sense and I agree, perspective is very important. I hope you will stay safe and feel some small sense of peace through this time. A book I read years ago brings the importance of keeping our cultural traditions at the forefront despite the obvious horrors human existence can bring. Administrators I apologize-trying to only take this as far as the Great Pumpkin-many interred in the concentration camps during WWII tried to do that-they would stage plays in the dirt, making their own stages out of scraps, put on performances when they could get away with it-imprisoned musicians made "instruments" out of sticks-and practiced on them since everything else was taken from them. A piano virtuoso drew a keyboard in the dirt, and played on it, just to remember how it was done. I am not making this up. Growing up, I knew a family who survived this, and their children-all 3 had piano lessons regularly-and were quite good at it. This family was a big part of my inspiration to study music. I saw that this was not just a frivolous pastime, but something apparently much more meaningful. Just trying to give you some hope, to play however and whatever you can. Thanks vbdx. Administrators, if this is an inappropriate post I will remove it.

My Korg DW6000 and DW8000 synths used tape cassettes for data storage, not for songs though-only for sounds. You could edit and save banks of sounds using a cassette recorder and cassettes. I think there were other earlier digital synths that did this. I know of no Casios that did this but there probably were. I think Casio was the only manufacturer that used data cartridges to save sounds such as the EZ-CZ cartridges I had for the CZ synths but again would only store data for sounds, not songs-the CZ-5000 has an 8-track sequencer, but I'm not sure the data cassettes stored songs-the EZ-CZ cartridges did not.

Brad is exactly right. To repeat his description -maybe I can simplify this. What you want to do, it can be recorded. You don't have to use registrations but it would be good to study what Brad is describing, it does automate alot of things at once. Here is the way I've done it. 1) Practice changing your rhythms with the selection buttons the way you will want to record them-as if you are playing "live" with the auto-arranger functions and buttons-selecting the rhythm, intro, fill, ending-the way you would do this if you were playing live. 2) Call up the song recorder-with a new blank song. 3) Make sure-as Brad said-to select the "system track" , not any of the other single tracks/channels because the system track is the only track that will record your complete sequence of changes you make with the auto-arranger buttons. 4) Arm the system track to record as you would any other track from the keyboard-except now, once the system track is recording-it will start to record exactly whatever rhythm, fill ending, changes to rhythms-all in that one track as you push the different arranger buttons-it will record whatever changes you make. You are in complete control of whatever arranger functions you choose-and the song recorder will record all that information in the system track-leaving all your other tracks blank, ready to record other instruments along with the complete arranger track which is now "automated". I had trouble understanding how this works at first-although other arranger keyboards use the same idea. it is important to understand, only the system track can record all these changes, the other tracks can't do this. The system track also stores your tempo and any other setting you may have set in the mixer for using along with the song recorder-such as pan, volume for each individual track, and of course what you want to do. and if you try to record over the system track, using the same song, you will delete all of this. Think of the system track as a recorder for ALL and ANY changes you make using the auto-arranger buttons, including intros, ending, fills, rhythm styles, even changes in tempo you might perform while you are playing. Very nice. Frees you up to do other things while you have a fully "automated" arranger song playing. Post back if this still doesn't make sense. I've played so many Casio arranger boards-its actually alot more versatile than many think.

I am not speaking professionally, let me be clear-I am posting this with a huge "caveat". And the areas on this PX seem pretty large so my solution might not be appropriate. I researched this yellowed plastic problem several years ago online-but it was for smaller objects-specifically for the yellowed "chicklet" buttons on an RM1X and several Roland digital recorders that had yellowed buttons-but yellowed from age, not a reaction to another possible chemical contact. And it worked but is not easy. I purchased a small bottle of peroxide-the type used for people's hair-it had a jellied consistency, not a liquid-so could be applied carefully with a brush without dripping into/onto anything else-and it had to sit on these parts long enough to work. But here's the catch. By itself, it did not work-but based upon someone else's demonstrations, I located the module(s)-with the peroxide on the affected parts-in direct strong sunlight-and amazingly, it worked-took all the yellow off the keys. There may be a way to simulate the natural sunlight, but I did not try. And again-I only did this for smaller localized parts-not a larger surface such as the PX5S. I also masked off the parts just to make sure none of this peroxide ran into anything else surrounding it. And the peroxide has to be in the right percentage solution-and as a gel coat-it needs to adhere to the surface as a gel, and has to stay reasonably "wet" to work. If it dries out it also will not work. I needed to let it sit for a good 8 hours or so (summer was best!) for this to "take". It did not damage the plastic-but then I can't know what the finish is on the PX5S, there is a danger this process could damage the finish-so again just passing on the experience I have had although I'm not sure, if it was my PX, that I would go through this since it is such a large area, might have to chalk it up to leaving it as it is. I would post (I will post) a warning in the comments section of wherever I bought my covers-that this could be a possible problem-I'm sure I got these from a vendor on you know where that starts with an "A".

Yikes! I have 2 of these stretchy covers-not my favorite since these are a bit porous anyway and let some dust in-but never discolored my keyboards-then again I use these on metal finish keyboards never noticed any discoloration. Something in this spandex must react with the plastic. I'd post a review of where you got it-with the vendor, so other PX5s owners will know, but that's me. Not too surprised given some of the chemicals used in products lately, but definitely should not have happened. Here is a picture of a similar stretchy rubbery fabric I purchased a year or two ago to use as a non-slip surface/cover which seemed like a good idea at the time-it is sold as covering for shelves. Why post here? This is nasty stuff-it has "etched" its way into almost every plastic i had resting it against-completely ruined the finish on several of my plastic cased modules and computers, and I've had to scrape it off shelves, horrible product should be banned from the market. Posted as a warning here, and thinking it may have the same chemical composition as these spandex covers, but with an even more damaging result. I kept a piece just to remind me not to put it near anything plastic-or anything else as it melts itself into a goo on just about anything.

Sometimes it not what you say that's important-it's what you don't say......

First of all, I have never seen a Casio keyboard with a removable internal IC for its sounds-aside from external thumb drives, SD cards etc. And secondly, what kind of technician removes a sound chip while repairing a keyboard, and does not remount it? This amounts to either theft or negligence. In either case, this technician should be held liable for stealing a vital component from your Casio, unless I misunderstand what you are saying. I am not sure what the term "IC sound" means. Do you mean a distinct IC part, or are you just not able to play the sounds? All the Casios I've disassembled have their main IC that has the operating system and factory sounds, epoxied to the mainboard. This could be removed and de-soldered but only by a tech who has the proper SMT soldering/desoldering tools-and you would have to remove the epoxy seal to do that. I've not disassembled a CTX yet, so I could be wrong about no easily removed IC's. Post a picture if you can.

Great job. I will definitely be using this, still alive and active with the XW-definitely worth your effort. Now if only I could do this for the Alesis Fusion-which unfortunately probably impossible-as it never implemented accessible sysex commands-part of why it failed. So Casio did good with the XW as you have just shown, thank you!